The day is done, and there are 24 new Cougars who signed letters of intent on Wednesday. In addition, the Cougars have one transfer player. Here’s a glance at Tony Levine’s thoughts on each of the guys in the class in addition to their size and where they’re from. (to see the full bios for each of the players, check out the signing day page on UHCougars.com.)

Quarterbacks: 1

Rex Dausin, San Antonio Warren
6-3, 195Levine’s take: “On paper, coming out of high school, resembles Case Keenum quite a bit in that he’s been in an offense similar to ours that throws the ball, is no-huddle and spreads four wide receivers, his father is the head high school coach at Warren, he’s been a three-year starter. He’s bigger than Case was at that time. He’s probably going to grow some. He’ll have a chance to come in here and compete immediately. Really excited about Rex and getting him here and getting started with our workouts.”

Running backs: 3

Ryan Jackson, Angleton
5-10, 180Levine’s take: “He’s extremely, extremely explosive on the football field. He’s a 10.3 100-meter guy. When you watch his highlight tape, it really looks like he’s coasting and jogging at times. But then you see everybody chasing him running as hard as they can and if it was flag football, they wouldn’t be able to grab his flags. He was heavily recruited by a lot of schools. We were the first to offer him a scholarship.”

Terrence “Boda” Taylor, Diboll
5-11, 205Levine’s take: “He’s kind of in that Bryce Beall mold. He’s about 205, 210 right now. I see him as more of 225-pound running back in the next year or two, which I think we need. On third and fourth-and-short, it’s a lot more comforting to hand it to a bigger back and get that yard then either a quarterback sneak or like we did in the TicketCity Bowl, throwing the ball.”

Jontrey Tillman, West St. Mary (Baldwin, La.)
5-9, 183Levine’s take: “He’s a 10.4 100-meter guy as a junior. If you get a chance to watch their tape, he gets out in the open and nobody’s going to catch him. He’s also a kick returner and is also a great, great kid.”

Receivers: 4

Deontay Greenberry, Washington Union (Fresno, Calif.)
6-3, 187Levine’s take: “We’re excited about him. He’s had a great relationship with our new inside receivers coach and special teams coordinator Jamie Christian from his time at Arizona State. He’s excited to come earn his degree from here and obviously catch a lot of footballs in the next four years….He’s got a lot of accolades. He’s a bigger kid and he can definitely run….His confidence on the field is impressive. We’ll have to talk to our conference about letting us use more footballs in the game because he’s going to want it every time.”

Larry McDuffey, North Shore
5-11, 165Levine’s take: “He’s a 10.5 (second) 100-meter kid. Great kid. Can really run. When he gets the ball in his hands, he makes a ton of plays…Great student. Great competitor.”

Xavier Maxwell, Blinn College (Humble HS)
6-2, 183Levine’s take: “We feel like he’s another one that has a chance to come in and compete immediately.”

Andrew Rodriguez, Allen
5-10, 181Levine’s take: “We’ve known about him for a long time and in the transition we didn’t evaluate him until later in the recruiting process. He’s a young man we’re extremely excited about and he’s probably the most polished of the five or six receivers we have coming in. I would look for him to have a chance to play extremely early.”

Offensive linemen:3

Jacob Abels, Fort Bend Austin
6-5, 290Levine’s take: “We probably project him as more of an inside guy. Probably at the guard position.”

Mac Long, Edna6-4, 282Levine’s take: “He’s still 17 years old and has some growing left in him. He’ll get stronger, especially in his upper body and is just a tremendous young man and tremendous talent.”

Blake Herman, Needville
6-7, 290Levine’s take: “He’s 295 pounds and when he gets here in four months and walks in the door, you’ll look at him and think he’s 250. He doesn’t have any fat on him. He’s going to be huge. He’ll probably come in and redshirt just to change his body a little bit. Not that he necessarily needs it as much but he’ll add some muscle and he’ll be a young man that can carry 330 and be able to move.”

Levine on the offensive linemen in general: “They’re all big, have great feet and they’re long….We’re really fortunate to bring all three of these young men into our program, especially with them being here locally.”

Defensive linemen:4

Donald Hopkins, Lago Vista
6-2, 285Levine’s take: “He’s really, really explosive. He was highly recruited, committed to an SEC school (Missouri) but changed his mind and decided he wanted to stay closer to home. I’m really excited about him.”

Cameron Malveaux, Hamshire-Fannett6-6, 227Levine’s take: “If you ask me who’s going to redshirt, I can probably tell you he will. He’s 6-6, 225. He’s extremely athletic. We had him at camp last summer. He’s going to get with coach (Brian) Odom, our new strength coach, and get in the weight room for about a year. He’s got a great frame and he’s going to get up to about 250 pounds….We can’t teach 6-6.”

Tomme Mark, Lufkin
6-2. 260Levine’s take: “As much hype as we got on Deontay Greenberry committing, Tomme was as highly recruited as anybody. We’ve been recruiting him for almost two years

Bryan “BJ” Singleton, Destrehan (La.)
6-4, 250Levine’s take: “He’s down in the middle of SEC country and was recruited by a number of those schools. Our staff in the transition did a great job of holding on to BJ. I expect him to be a tremendous player for us here right away.”

Linebackers: 5

Steven Aikens, Arlington Seguin
6-2, 200Levine’s take: “I’d say in a year or two he’s going to be closer to 225 or 230. He’s extremely physical and instinctive.”

Thaddeus LaGrone, Allen
6-2, 206Levine’s take: “I told him that he’ll probably want to take a picture of himself with his shirt off and then do it again a year from now because his body is really going to change. He’s going to be a 235-pound linebacker that can really run and likes to play.”

Trevon Randle*, LSU (Clear Springs HS)6-2. 222Levine’s take: “He’s already enrolled and working out in the weight room with our football team every day.”–Note: Randle enrolled in January and transferred from LSU. He’ll have to sit out 2012 per NCAA transfer rules.

Steven Taylor, Cedar Hill6-1, 205Levine’s take: “Might be the most instinctive football player that we’ve signed. He’s a downhill (player), great instincts, reacts extremely well and likes to hit and likes to tackle, which are naturally good traits for that position.”

Davonte Thomas, Eisenhower
6-1, 202Levine’s take: “He was a safety primarily in high school but we project him at linebacker. He knows that. His body is going to change. He can run and he can hit.”

Defensive backs: 2

Trevon Stewart, Patterson (La.)
5-9, 195Levine’s take: “Highly recruited kid. I put him in the same mold as Jarrett (Irving) personality-wise. He had a lot of opportunities (to switch) throughout this recruiting process and stuck by us the whole way. He played some running back (in high school) and cornerback. He will play corner here. He changes direction as well as anybody in this class.”

Jarrett Irving, Dekaney
5-10, 180Levine’s take: “He will play baseball here as well as football. Great athlete. Loves to play. Great personality — reminds me of Zach McMillian. Just a great kid.”

Athletes:

William Jackson, Wheatley
6-2., 175Levine’s take: “He plays cornerback and receiver and also is a kick returner. He’s just a special talent. Depending on who wins the arm wresting match between coach (Zac) Spavital and coach (Jamie) Christian (will determine) whether he’ll catch a lot of balls or intercept a lot of passes. He’s one to keep your eye on as well.”

Adrian McDonald, Lawton (Okla.) Eisenhower
5-10, 170Levine’s take: “He’s a quarterback at Lawton. We’re going to play him at cornerback. If you saw his video, they run a zone-read, some option, and he has to make quick decisions and cut on a dime. Those are traits that we see our cornerbacks as needing to have.”

Devin Parks, Edna
5-10, 173Levine’s take: “He played his junior year at El Campo. As a junior in high school he won the 100 (meter dash) at the state track meet. He’s run as fast as a 10.4. If you haven’t seen his highlight tape, that means when he gets the ball and breaks free, he never gets caught from behind. He’ll be a guy that’s probably running a 10.3 in the 100-meters in his senior season of track. We’re going to start him off as an inside receiver with giving him the opportunity to play early.”

And courtesy of our high school reporter Angel Verdejo, here’s a video interview with Eisenhower’s Davonte Thomas, one of the 24 signees from Wednesday.

What I really like about this class is the fact that our coaches did a great job of scouting these kids. Although many are 3-star, this is still a class that flies below the radar — in the finest UH tradition.

Two players really stand out for me: Andrew Rodriguez and Rex Dausin. Rodriguez stands in that UH tradition of having relatively small but unbelievably fast receivers in the line of Alridge, Edwards, and Carrier. I would throw in Avery, but he wasn’t so small by college standards. Rodriguez will be a household name in this city before he leaves. Paired with Greenberry (and the other receivers who signed yesterday), Rodriguez has a chance to add significant stats to an already bloated UH record book.

This receiving corps is frightening to contemplate. It will likely be among the fastest in the country. One misstep and the defender is toast. (Ask Penn State about that.) The receivers that just signed with UH will ensure that UH QBs will work in a target rich environment for years to come. I’m sure David Piland is already licking his chops at the thought of the receivers who will be running under his passes next year.

And Dausin has the potential to be another Case Keenum. He’s aclimated to our offense and there is no substitute for being a coach’s son. He will likely become the “coach on the field” that helped make Case the star that he became. He will have to wait his turn, but by the time he leaves he can be another stellar name in a tradition of UH quarterbacks stretching over two decades. Few schools in the nation can match the quarterback tradition UH has established.

It will be exciting to watch these young men grow and mature and become the UH stars of tomorrow. For each of them the future is really bright. “But wait! There’s more!” Playing in the Big East will get them the type of media coverage that no school in Texas, with the possible exception of UT, will be able to match. That will ensure that their talents will not be hidden from the public eye and certainly not from potential NFL scouts. Win win. To be sure that is a bright light that shows both the good and the bad, but UH’s quality athletes will always be on display for all the world to see.

Out here, San Antonio media as a whole, and as usual, gave short shift to UH. Rex Dausin got a mention (barely)from a couple of places, but Coogs’ coup in grabbing off Deonjay was ignored. Texas, A&M, Baylor and Big 12 got lots of play, as did recruits (expectedly)signing with local schools UTSA and Incarnate Word (now moving up to Div. II). Even a kid going to Colorado School of Mines was noted. Well, times are changing…somewhat.

UHFan79 is constantly lamenting the lack of a Big 12 invitation and touting UH as the salvation for the continued existence of the league. Therefore, it is of interest to other posters. If you are one who is not interested, don’t read them.

Pelham, I don’t normally take time to read back over these old threads. They are kind of like yesterday’s newspapers. But I’m glad I did in this case. I want to thank you for taking time to read my posts. That shows a keen interest in UH sports, and I appreciate that. Like so many others you find UH sports a source of endless facination.

A word of caution, however. Be careful to not misrepresent or misquote someone when you are trying to make a point. I would dispute your statement that “UHFan79 is constantly lamenting the lack of a Big 12 invitation and touting UH as the salvation for the continued existence of the league.” It is the “constantly lamenting” that really distorts this passage you quote. That is certainly far from the truth. I might have noted an historical event, since history is history and truth is truth. But I emphatically do not dwell on the past. Not my style, if you will.

What I do is speak boldly about the present and the future of UH sports. The future of this program is almost amazing now that we too have joined an AQ league. And being in the Big East will bring nothing short of a media bonanza so you will not get to indulge your keen interests in UH sports in stories and articles from the Eastern Media Establishment. It doesn’t get any better for a follower of things UH. No doubt you will continue to follow the exploits of this program and to (clearly) hang on my every comment. But please exercise care in quoting or imputing meaning to the things I post. Thanks again.

For the sake of clarity, you do recall that UH was not on the Big East’s original expansion list due to its academic standing and poor facilites, right? Only after more teams bailed did the BE scramble and scrape the bottom of the barrel.

D-War, I agree completely with hardcorecoog. I will be anxious to see how they mature over the next year. Throw in a Top 20 recruiting class and our future is bright. Our team is very young and shorthanded. These issues show up especially when they play on the road and against more experienced teams. When you figure that Coach Dickey’s first full recruiting class is the one that started this past fall, a coach simply needs more time. We all are concerned about where the basketball program will be when we join the Big East in Fall 2013 but I believe the building blocks are in place.

I agree with the wait and see but we do have to remember Dana Dimmel. He had some of the best recruiting classes in C-USA but couldn’t coach that talent into a winning team. Granted Double D never had a 5 star recruit nor the 12th best recruiting class in the nation. If this team is not good next year with House and Knowles then the coach needs to be the recruiting head not the head coach.

The real test for Levine and Dickey is if they can translate talent into wins. Dimmel certainly couldn’t but really should be given the majority of the credit for the UH turn around. Brilles used his recruits just as Sumlin used Brilles’ recruits.

Sam, is Blake Hermann any kin to Ronnie Herman. Ronnie played at UH from 68-70. He played at Wharton County Jr. College in 67…the picture looks similar…Ronnie was an outstanding player during his time…hank ’73 ’85

Sam enjoyed all your comentary and info on a great recruiting class. perhaps you could shed some light on the status of a few past recruits i can think of off hand. such as kortlandt akins,jordan jolley, arron johnson,chris hill, alton demby, efrem oliphant, rodney williams, blake sargent. i am sure there are others who might add other names as well.
thanks again

Pelham, it appears you would like to see Louisville in the Big 12, perhaps in some screwed up reasoning you think this would lesson UH by way of lessoning the Big East conference….the problem for you is that the Big East will soon negotiate a huge TV deal and the money will very likely cause powers that be at Louisville to think twice about jumping to the Big 12….maybe think three times…maybe the Big 12 can lure Texas San Antonio.